Startup Renegades

Sheera’s business idea is completely unique and it’s morphed and grown over the years. She shares the ups and downs, the testing and pivots, and everything in between that has gotten Zygo to the place it’s at today. Zygo is now the first ever tool that swimmers use to stream audio and live communication underwater. It’s not only used to listen to music, but also for swimming teachers to use it as walkie talkie for their students. The company has raised a total of $5 million to date and has sold over 15,000 units.

In this episode, you will hear more about:

• The first moment Sheera realized that she could be a Renegade
• How Sheera used flyers (organic marketing!) and Classpass (digital marketing!) to sell out the very first group swim classes for Zygo
• How they discovered that their original business model wasn’t scalable—and the steps Sheera and her co-founder took to take it from small business to startup

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Jennifer Gligoric is the Founder of Entrepods, a cutting-edge show asking the top entrepreneurial experts "So now what?" when it comes to their business and life. She's also a certified business coach and fractional consultant specializing in business crisis intervention & remote workplaces. 

For the past decade, she's been helping companies build the solid foundations they need to repair, strengthen & abundantly grow their businesses by harnessing the power of technology in virtual workplaces using the principles of Ethical Entrepreneurship.

In this episode, you will hear more about:

• The powerful moment in Jennifer’s life that made her realize how powerful a life of service could be
• How being so deeply involved in the sales process enabled Jennifer to learn the key factors every business needs fixed in order to scale
• Why sloppy HR is probably what’s keeping you from scaling

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Justin Clegg has been profiled by VentureBeat, Deseret News and Entrepreneur.com and is a frequent public speaker. Justin has studied, lived and operated in a variety of international locations including Singapore, China, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mozambique and New Delhi and is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French and conversational Hindi—which has led to his global perspective.

He co-founded three Silicon Valley startups and today we’ll talk about AllSet, a conversational texting platform for home service businesses that automates personalized SMS conversations to increase tips, reviews, referrals and more.

In this episode, you will hear more about:

• Why Justin’s feeling of being an outsider gave him the compassion, empathy, and desire to launch a career in tech
• The reason Justin lost sleep obsessing over another startup’s concept and how it inspired him to start a brand new company
• How connecting directly with customers led Justin and his team to completely scrap their app—and how that pivot was a game changer in their business

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Henley Vazquez is a self-proclaimed hotel junkie driven by match-making the perfect property to each traveler's unique style. Once upon a time, Henley founded and led Passported, a boutique travel agency with a focus on making family travel both accessible and enjoyable. 

But the pandemic changed everything. 

After rethinking how things needed to be done in the travel industry, she co-founded Fora, a new startup that empowers anyone to transform their passion for travel into meaningful revenue through flexible and fun work. 

Henley fulling admits that building a startup is a team sport and explains why “being the dumbest person in the room” is actually a CEO superpower.

In this episode, you will hear more about:

• Why Henley found herself hiding in the back of a coffee shop after her small business failed…. And how being “found out” was exactly the inspiration she needed
• How Fora used the network effect to explode their waitlist to over 17,000 people
• How Henley determined that raising venture capital was the right thing to do to grow Fora

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Ahmed Elsamadisi is the Founder and CTO at Narrator.ai, a data modeling platform that allows data teams to answer any and all data questions within minutes. He is a passionate and driven entrepreneur who began to obsess over how humans and robots make decisions…. Which led him to launch this amazing company which is solving big problems for businesses today.

Before Narrator, Ahmed joined WeWork as the first hire on their data team. In just four years since the founding of Narrator, Ahmed graduated from startup accelerator Y Combinator and was named a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2021.

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• Why finding the right team is critical to your success
• How you can gain funding for your startup by selling “the dream”
• The key difference between building different or building better and how it affects your approach to growing a startup (and funding it!)

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

In this episode, FounderSuite CEO Nathan Beckord discusses how his inside knowledge of the fundraising process was eye-opening and led to a huge discovery—running a sloppy fundraising process could keep your startup from raising. That’s when he came up with the idea for FounderSuite—a venture-backed company that makes the leading “funding stack” (investor database, CRM, pitch deck hosting, and Investor Update tools) for startups raising capital. Since launching in 2016, users have raised over $3 Bln in seed and venture capital.

Prior to starting Foundersuite, Nathan spent ten years working with over 150 startups as interim CFO, Business Developer, and Advisor. Nathan has an MBA in Entrepreneurship, a BSC in Finance, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• Making smart pivots in your business based on what your customer really needs
• How you can get ahead by being will to experiment with unique marketing strategies
• Why going with your gut is really what will build your business

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Courtney Boyd Meyers is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and writer. But, there came a point when she couldn't “sit back and watch the world burn”. Lucky for the world, she co-founded AKUA, a Brooklyn-based company creating plant-based foods from locally sourced and regeneratively ocean-farmed kelp—and home of “the world’s first Kelp Burger”.

She began her career as a journalist at Forbes Magazine and The Next Web and has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. On Startup Renegades, she shares her amazing journey into this new food category

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• Why having an omnichannel growth approach is essential to the rapid development of your business
• How a small group of dedicated customers can help entrepreneurs scale faster
• Why PR (done right!) is a game-changer for your brand

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Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Lauren Wang launched The Flex Co. in 2016 with the dream of transforming the lives of people with periods. Today, Flex is the top-selling sustainable period care brand in the country, sold in over 25,000 retail locations and online. Flex is the only company in the world to offer both disposable and reusable menstrual discs, in addition to menstrual cups—providing users with the most comfortable period week of their lives.

Lauren joined the Startup Renegades podcast to share how listening to her gut—and knowing when to listen to other people—was crucial for scaling her brand.

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• How making a checklist of the things you DON’T know is a strategic growth strategy
• Why some of the best business decisions are unconventional choices
• How to grow your business by being a good listener and by being totally obsessed with your customer

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Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Goodmylk Co. founder Brooke Harris is on a mission to “keep it real” with organic, truly nutritional plant mylks made from the good stuff, and nothing else. No chemicals, no binders, no fillers and above all—no compromises. Goodmylk Co. plant mylks are available in over 100 California coffee shops and grocery stores, including Blue Bottle, Erewhon, and Gelsons. And due to popular demand, they’re now available to order directly at goodmylk.co.

In this episode, Brooke discusses her passion for food and wellness and how it led to discovering a career fit for her. She shares how she builds relationships with brands and handles partnerships in order to grow her business in the direction she wants.

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• Scaling through social media and brand partnerships with companies you trust
• Saying yes(!) to all opportunities that come your way
• Problem solving through understanding logistics and accessibility to your customers

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

Felicia Curcuru always knew she would be an entrepreneur. She was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. She was later the first employee, Head of User Experience and Director of Business Development at FundersClub, a leading online venture capital firm.

But when she was first introduced to the world of child welfare when her sister adopted two children many years ago, she found the thing she knew she could build a strong business upon.

Through her experiences as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth in San Francisco, she saw a lot of opportunity for technology to improve the outcomes of families and children in the foster care and adoption world. 

And that’s when Binti was born. 

Check out this episode to hear more about:

• How creating her own “grad school” experiences gave Felicia incredibly valuable opportunities in the startup space
• The unique way Felicia came up with her own business idea by identifying the problems she cared most about
• The reason the first version of her company failed and the touch choices she made to pivot successfully
• Why confidence may be the most important part of your pitch
• Felicia’s #1 growth strategy for scaling a business that relies on government contracts

Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com